Psalms 18:26

With the froward - עקש ikkesh , the perverse man; he that is crooked in his tempers and ways.

Thou wilt show thyself froward - תתפתל tithpattal , thou wilt set thyself to twist, twine, and wrestle. If he contend, thou wilt contend with him. Thou wilt follow him through all his windings; thou wilt trace him through all his crooked ways; untwist him in all his cunning wiles; and defeat all his schemes of stubbornness, fraud, overreaching, and deceit.

My old Psalter has, With the wiked thow sal be wike . Here the term wicked is taken in its true original sense, crooked, or perverse. With the wiked , the perverse, thou wilt show thyself wike , i.e., perverse; from to draw back, to slide. As he draws back from thee, thou wilt draw back from him. It may, as before intimated, come from to seek for enchantments; leaving God, and going to devils; to act like a witch: but here it must mean as above. The plain import is, "If thou perversely oppose thy Maker, he will oppose thee: no work or project shall prosper that is not begun in his name, and conducted in his fear."